Target adds AR shopping to its mobile website

Target is rolling out a new way to shop using augmented reality technology, initially on its mobile website. The feature, called "See It In Your Space" will allow online shoppers to use their smartphone camera with Target's website in order to see how furniture they're considering buying will look in their room.

The option is currently only available with 200 "Project 62" brand home products from Target, but the retailer says it will roll out to hundreds more products by year-end, then thousands more in 2018.

To use the option, you'll click a button "See it in your space" from the product detail page on the Target mobile site. You then take a photo of your space and move, scale and rotate the product in question using directional arrows and other controls, or by pinching and dragging the object across the phone's touchscreen.

The end result is a photo of the product - like a chair, table, shelf, cabinet, etc. - in your own room.

You can choose to add the item directly to your shopping cart on the image that appears, if you decide you want to buy right now.

Amazon, too, has AR stickers but they're not practical or useful - instead, they're silly add-ons to its camera search tool, and don't represent a breadth of products.

"See It In Your Space" isn't Target's first experiment with using augmented reality on its website.

The retailer last year launched a 360-degree shopping experience with virtual living rooms to see how items would look in a real-world environment. That addition leveraged CGI (computer generated imagery) and worked with around 140 products at launch, Target said.

AR isn't the only newer mobile technology Target has been testing lately. The retailer also recently partnered with Pinterest to integrate visual search (Pinterest Lens) into its apps and website. This feature lets you snap a photo of any product, then get matched to other similar items from Target's catalog.